Leonard Bernstein: Arias and Barcarolles; songs and duets (Judy Kaye, soprano; William Sharp, baritone; Michael Barrett and Steven Blier, piano. Koch International Classics.)
President Eisenhower to Leonard Bernstein after a 1960 performance by the latter at the White House: ”You know, I liked that last piece you played;
it`s got a theme. I like music with a theme, not all them arias and barcarolles.”
A few decades later, Bernstein created an eclectic song cycle bearing that title, and it does have a theme-the different faces of love. Familiar Bernstein territory, to be sure, but not for a long while has the composer given us a new work as personal, witty, touching and melodically rich as this eight-part, 30-minute cycle of songs and duets.
”Arias and Barcarolles” ranges all over the musical map, from Sondheim- on-wry to 12-tone to klezmer to a punning reference to ”Tristan und Isolde.” The singers and pianists bring it off with panache in this world-premiere recording. Ditto their idiomatically lively accounts of
miscellaneous Bernstein songs, ranging from ”On the Town” (1944) to
”Songfest” (1977). (Reviewed on CD.)
